Check out http://aprilemery.blogspot.com/2010/04/mammas-bag-of-tricks-quiet-time-bins.html for suggestions on bins. I think these would work well for rainy days besides for quiet time. These also would be great to have for a sick days and road trips. My …

Anyone else love Vidalia Onions? I do! I also like sweet onions, but vidalia are special. I normally make stuffed green or red peppers or stuffed tomatoes – so it was time to give onions a try. – My husband loves the stuffed peppers or tomatoes, but the onions are now my favorite! Making these is simple!

I use whatever I happen to have, but I usually start with a mild sausage. (You can use hamburger if you would like it less spicy). I cook that on the stove to make sure it’s done, and throw in chopped up of whatever is in my fridge. With the onions for the next time I think I will use my food processor to get everything crumbled smaller.

For this try I used the sausage with salt, pepper, garlic, diced up tomato, cheese, and the scooped out pieces of onion diced out. – Other possible ingredients include aspargus, mushroom, corn, and whatever else you have in your fridge. I used cheddar this time, but I have sprinkled feta on top before… All these choices are yum and between this and quiche they are both great choices to use up veggies and things that are in your fridge and need used before they go bad. – You could even use some egg in the stuffed veggies… or take out the meat and use soy crumbles, tofu, or jackfruit for some protein.

In this case I actually took little pans and put the extra and then put the baked onions on top after I finished baking it all. (I tried stuffing cucumber but it needed longer than the onion and so it wasn’t baked all the way)….

I used 350 degrees until the onions were soft, and it was ready! Personally I loved it! But I can eat the filling by itself even!

I decided to make a milkshake with my little one for fun! Milkshakes are pretty easy to make at home! We just needed milk, sugar, vanilla, and ice cream. Nothing too complicated.

I just use a little milk, as much ice cream as I plan to have in a milk shake and a little bit of sugar added to it. I usually add a small splash of vanilla myself, but that’s optional. I like to use a blender to mix it all up, but it should be possible to stir it. My son and I used color changing straws just because it was cool!

For the holiday we had a wide mix of meal choices. – Our main course was ham and rolls, but we had lots of goodies to go with. We have been having the leftovers for a few days now and are still doing alright with the variety!

Eating Out Before

Before Christmas Eve (where we always just snack at our neighbors holiday party) we chose to go out to Mellow Mushroom. They have a wide variety of choices and everyone can get what they want. The place was fairly empty, so we were able to eat and talk. There were a couple snafus with our order, but all in all it was a good choice for a large group with our variety.

Green Bean Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

My middle son wanted green Bean Casserole, though I wanted corn pie. This year I ended up making both! For green bean casserole I mix a couple cans of green beans (drained), a can of cream of mushroom soup (Campbells), French Fried Onions, a dash of soy sauce, some pepper and a cup of milk. I tend to just guess at how much on many of the ingredients. I bake the casserole for a while, usually around 350 degrees, and then pull it out when it looks about done. I add a few French fried onion to the top also and bake it a few more minutes and I have green bean casserole!

Corn Pie

My favorite is corn pie. It does make a huge amount and I really need to figure out how to cut down the recipe some. The corn pie includes 4 beaten eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 Tbs cornstarch, 2 Tbs sugar, 2 Tbs melted butter, 2 cups milk, 3 cans of corn and a pie shell (unbaked). I mix all the ingredients up except the pie shell and pour them into a pie pan. Then I put the pie shell on top of the corn pie and poke a couple small holes in it…. I usually bake it at 350 for an hour – stick a knife in and make sure it’s done inside by making sure that the knife comes out clean. I usually put mine on a cookie sheet – with sides…. this year I forgot the side and now I need to clean the bottom of my oven.

Vegan Meatballs

For my vegan son, I went with vegan meatballs in a onion and garlic spaghetti sauce. Everyone ended up eating them, so this brand was definitely the one to get again! They were easy to cook up and my husband and kids liked the taste.

Vegan Mashed Potatoes

Finally I fixed a mashed potatoes. I use the premade and frozen potatoes, so it was fairly easy. To keep them vegan I used vegan butter (from Earth Balance) and Cashew Milk. My youngest, who is super picky, even ate these. The vegan butter didn’t melt as easily as the dairy butter I usually use, so next time I don’t think I would use as much of the butter – or I’ll pre-melt it, but the little one had the potatoes for left overs for three meals.

All in all it was a meal that worked for our family and they were all items I can use and fix for meals throughout the year.

Time to make sugar cookies. We decided to just use a mix, but this is really the first time we’ve made regular sugar cookies. My little one wanted to cut them with cookie cutters. We did learn that they really needed to be thinner!

Afterwards we decorated them with icing, but my special little boy preferred them without icing. I’ll be making another set just like this for little one with no icing.

I like them with the icing, so I make slip in a few for me with icing! They aren’t beautiful, but they tasted great.

Fried Oysters made with Crispy Cajun…. I actually grabbed the wrong package, but these were simple to make with our air fryer. We ended up eating them though as sandwiches. This crispy Cajun breading is spicy for sure! I simply put the breading in a bag and threw my oysters in to the bag. I then shook the bag with the oysters to coat them.

I put the oysters into my air fryer, spraying with a little oil and using the fish setting let them cook until the machine turned off. I should have sprayed my air fryer basket first. After a bite, we proceeded to eat them with lots of white bread and milk! With the breading I intended to grab, these would have been perfect (or if you like spicy food!)